CORRECTION: Tour of California to bypass Santa Clarita next year

City corrects statement about seeking 2012 race

The Amgen Tour of California will bypass Santa Clarita in 2012, winding through Bakersfield, Palmdale and Big Bear Lake before ending in Los Angeles, organizers announced this week.

Santa Clarita has hosted either the start or the finish of one stage of the well-known bicycle race four times in the race’s six-year history.

The city did seek to host the race again in 2012, but organizers chose a route that does not go through the Santa Clarita Valley, a spokeswoman said Saturday.

"Santa Clarita enjoys a great relationship with the Tour, and we look forward to having them back in Santa Clarita in 2013," said a statement issued Saturday.

Organizers of the race say they try to vary host cities to provide a variety of opportunities for hosts and cyclists.

The eight-stage event, which is expected to include about 140 of cycling’s top professional riders — including title-winner Chris Horner and three-time winner Levi Leipheimer of Santa Rosa — will visit 13 host cities in its seventh edition.

It begins begins in Santa Rosa on May 13.

New hosts include first-time venues Sonora and Ontario. The roughly 750-mile race will conclude May 20 in Los Angeles.

All participating teams and individual riders will be announced in the weeks just before the race.

Stage 2 will take the field from San Francisco to Santa Cruz County, followed by Stage 3 from San Jose to Livermore. San Jose is the only city involved as a stage host every year.

Sonora will host the start of Stage 4. Bakersfield will replace Solvang as the location of the event’s only individual time trial in Stage 5.

Stage 6 will start in Palmdale and head to Big Bear Lake. Ontario will host the start of Stage 7, which will conclude at Mount Baldy.

“Our goal for the Amgen Tour of California has always been to create a route that not only provides a challenging race for the world’s top cyclists, but one that highlights the beauty and diverse terrain that make up the great state of California as well,” Kristin Bachochin, the race’s first-year executive director, said in a statement.

This year, the race was scheduled to start at South Lake Tahoe with a route around Lake Tahoe. Snow forced organizers to cancel the stage at the last minute.